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Mark Menzies MP: How I voted on Brexit

Fylde MP Mark Menzies voted for the Prime Minister's Brexit deal, in favour of keeping a No Deal Brexit on the table, and will vote against extending Article 50.

Mr Menzies voted with the Government to leave the EU with a deal (the Withdrawal Agreement), which was lost 391 votes to 242.

He said: "Parliament has voted against the deal, and against the notion of a No Deal Brexit. Other MPs took no deal off the table and seek an extension to Article 50, which the EU is only likely to grant us with a variety of strings attached.

"This represents the worst possible outcome for the UK in my opinion. How do we now negotiate any form of departure from the EU, when our MPs have told the EU we will only leave with a deal. We have removed our biggest bargaining chip.

"In the most simplistic terms possible, It's like going into a car dealership, telling the car salesman not to worry because you are definitely buying a car no matter what, and then asking for a discount.

"This is the worst possible outcome for the UK in my opinion.

"This is why I have consistently supported the deal. Not because I like it, but because what happens next is Parliament delaying the whole thing, potentially indefinitely.

There is now every chance we will not leave the EU at all, ever.

"As someone who represents an area in which leave won 57 per cent of the vote, I have not been ‘betraying the referendum’ by supporting the Withdrawal Agreement – I have just been consistently voting to get us out of the EU.

"The British people told MPs in the 2016 referendum to get us out of the EU and the General Election a year later returned 589 MPs who promised in their manifestos to deliver Brexit – a promise I have been determined to honour.

"I feel truly sorry that other MPs have not followed the simple instruction we were given, serving our constituents and our great nation."